Watercolor?

Alice X Zhang, digital artist and amateur illustrator. Ms. Zhang has an amazing gallery full of digital fan art of Disney, Spirited Away, Twilight, Avatar, and Harry Potter characters. While some people do not always consider fan art actual art, Ms. Zhang's beautifully crafted replicas of the characters are not simply an attempt to directly replicate the characters and scenes, but to capture and recreate the characters with her own flare. For example, the following is a quick painting, done in photoshop:

Obviously, Ms. Zhang's gallery is not solely fan art. Ms. Zhang's work highly resembles that which would be done in traditional media.

Her original designs have been turned into T-shirt designs, like:

To find more of Ms. Zhang's work, visit: http://alicexz.deviantart.com/ 

(If you are interested in getting a T-shirt, Ms. Zhang has a section in her gallery specifically for T-shirt designs. All of the works in that section have links on where to purchase said shirts.)

I Can Has Kittens Please

Lisa Sweet is a photographer from the United States who primarily focuses on cats, people, and stereotypes. The shots Sweet manages to get of cats are them really at their cutest and most adorable it seems.

The pictures that she takes of people vary from portraits to full body shots. Sweet captures people both for the beauty of humans as they are, but also to be used in the message she would like to convey. These messages seem to be her take or approach on a certain stereotype or stereotyped phrase which she manages to sum up and convey her thoughts in one single picture.

Ms. Sweet has often uses stage blood, as seen in the picture above, in the pictures she has taken of people. There is a definitely strange duality between her adorable cat obsession and her more serious, and much less adorable, works.

To see more, visit: http://fangedfem.deviantart.com/

Knite

Wenqing Yan, also known as Yuumei Yan, is a digital artist making her way into flash comics and animation. The majority of Yan's work focuses on a primary subject with either no background or little, but wonderfully executed background. Yan's flash work has a distinct style that allows her digital work to resemble or reflect the textures and colors of watercolor.

The image above is a promotional poster for Yan's flash comic, Knite. Knite, proceeded by the oneshot flash comic "1000 Words," is an interesting and amazing comic for multiple reasons. Because it is  flash comic, it differs from the majority of comics in the way that its read. The art on each page of the comic is beautifully drawn, colored, and textured. The storyline feels personal and is highly original.

An example of one of her original characters:

An example of her aptitude for traditional media:

To see more, visit: http://yuumei.deviantart.com/

Attention to Detail

Yang Fan, graphic artist and aspiring 3D animator. Fan primarily uses Photoshop, but has also used ZBrush, Maya, Body Paint, and 3D Studio Max. The vast majority of her work concentrates on characters and character concepts. Every one of her pieces is done in amazing detail, whether it be fan art, or her more intricate original concept characters. Fan wishes to push her way more into the game industry (either as a 2D concept artist or 3D texture artist) and make her fantasy world come to life in 3D. Currently, Fan is working as a freelance illustrator.

Some original character examples:

A concept sketch:

View more at: http://jiuge.deviantart.com or http://www.yangfanart.com/

The Artist's Model

Matt Carter, an aspiring 3D animator who has polished off some impressive shorts. Carter also dabbles in photography, photo-manipulation, and some digital works done in Photoshop and Corel Painter IX. His shorts are no longer than 5 minutes long, but contain a strong message or a full story.

An example of a full short from Carter:

A demo reel of a collection of Carter's shorts:

While his 2d work is not refined to a render, the outcome is still impressive. It is too detailed to be considered a sketch, too under-refined to be considered a render. Carter's digital pieces appear to be merely concept ideas that were too important for a simple sketch and were transformed into the image of a render in progress. A sample of Carter's 2D work:

Watch more of Carter's animations at http://mattcarter.deviantart.com

Closer to the Edge

Lisa Rye, a digital artist and cosplayer, while known for her amazing fan art (in the form of cosplay costumes and digital art) is also known for her quick yet detailed original digital works. The general range of the time Rye spends on her digital pieces is between three to fifteen hours.

Rye's digital work generally primarily focuses on a figure or character. However, the majority of the effect drawn from the works are from the complex and detailed scenery.

Although performing while injured, a good example of Rye's cosplay at work:

To see more of Lisa Rye's cosplay or digital works, visit: http://risachantag.deviantart.com/

Draw With Me

Mike Inel, digital artist and animator. Mike Inel does a lot of labor intensive short animations and numerous character studies. The majority of his work is original art, character sketches and designs, animation storyboards and the animations themselves. Inel's works will jump from depressing to funny and from to static to animated.

Inel's most noted work would be "Draw With Me":



A sample of his un-animated digital art:

To see more from Mike Inel visit:
http://mikeinel.deviantart.com/

Infinite

Mehrdad Garousi, painter, photographer, and fractal artist. The majority of Garousi's work is comprised of two dimensional fractal art. However, Garousi takes these two dimensional fractal pieces and turns them into digital or physical three dimensional objects. Garousi's infinite loop animations of self-manipulating forms can mesmerize one into involuntarily staring for minutes on end.

Fractal samples from Garousi:

Three dimensional work:

See more at: http://mehrdadart.deviantart.com/